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the life and legacy of chief washakie: an example of ingenuity TEACHER BACKGROUND This lesson examines the life of leader Washakie. Born at a time when the Shoshones were on equal footing with the , Washakie came to represent a group of the Shoshones during the mid-1800s, as they and other Indian nations found themselves less able to match the military power of the United States due to loss of population, changing technology, treaty-breaking, and differing land ethics. Washakie helped to establish peace for the Shoshones as the and non-Indian settlers proved insurmountable adversaries for American Indian communities throughout North

Shoshone people, Washakie entered treaty negotiations with the United States. His leadership was memorializedAmerica. Perhaps when influenced the Northwestern by the Bear Shoshones River Massacre, established which a farm had in thedevastated Malad Valley, the Northwestern near Brigham City, , and named their new settlement Washakie. Objective The student will be able to comprehend the changing circumstances impacting the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone through the life story of Chief Washakie.

Teacher Materials At a Glance: Washakie and His Legacy Shoshone Interactive Map (available at www.UtahIndians.org) We Shall Remain: The Northwestern Shoshone (chapter 4, 10:30–13:40) Student Materials Time Frame The Life of Chief Washakie (three sections) Two thirty-minute periods

Procedure Question students to see if they have any previous knowledge about Chief Washakie, and then intro-

different eras of political relations between the federal government and American Indians. Pass out theduce readings Washakie so brieflythat each to the student students gets inone your of theown three words. sections Let them detailing know athat period he lived of Washakie’s through three life.

Each student should write down the five most important things he/she learned from the section. 127 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE

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Procedure (cont.) Place students into groups of three so that each student has knowledge of one period of Washakie’s

factslife. Have about the Washakie, students they take can turns return teaching to their each seats. other the five facts they found most important. All team members should take notes from their teammates. Once every member has fifteen important Assessment/products Participation

Teamwork notes (with fifteen facts) variations/extensions Lead the students in a discussion comparing Washakie to other American Indian leaders or other leaders in our federal government. They may want to create a chart or Venn diagram showing the comparison. Create a timeline of Washakie’s long life and note all the changes in world, American, and Utah history that he lived through. Work with students to review the Treaties of 1863 and 1868 (copies available online at http://www.windriverhistory.org/archives/treaty_docs/treatydocumentsi.html). Have the students

vote on whether they would have signed the treaties. try to figure out the real meaning these documents would have had for the Shoshone. Ask the class to Review the following newspaper articles about Washakie, all available online through the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library’s Utah Digital Newspaper Project (online at http://digitalnewspa- pers.org/): “Some History of Chief Washakie,” , Feb. 24, 1900, p. 8 “Old Chief Washakie,” Deseret News, Mar. 18, 1896, p. 16 “He Was a Chief of Peace,” Ogden Standard Examiner, Feb. 27, 1900, p. 6 “ Fair to Exhibit Washakie’s Autobiography,” Richfield Reaper, Dec. 8, 1938, p. 8 Pick a few articles to share with the class. Have them think about the point of view of the author and

how it reflects a different period in history.

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additional references Allotment Information for Rocky Mountain BIA Region. http://www.indianlandtenure.org/ILTFallotment/specinfo/sc%20Rocky%20Mountain.pdf. Dramer, Kim. The Shoshone. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997. Hebard, Grace Raymond. Washakie: Chief of the Shoshones. Introduction by Richard O. Clemmer. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Parry, Mae. “The Northwestern Shoshone.” In A ’s American Indians. Ed. Forrest S. Cuch. : Utah State Division of Indian Affairs and the Utah Division of State History, 2000. “Promontory Point, May 10, 1896,” http://www.nwbshoshone-nsn.gov/culture/history/promontory.htm#content. standards addressed State Standards Seventh Grade Social Studies – Utah Studies: 2/1/a&d; 3/1/c; 4/2/d; 5/2/d Accreditation Competencies Social and Civic Responsibility/Demonstrates an appreciation of diversity and interdependence of all people/Understands the history, people, and traditions that have shaped local communities, nations, and the world NCSS Standards Middle Grades: 2/b&c: 3/i; 5/a&e; 6/b,d&f

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THE SHOSHONES AT A GLANCE: Washakie and HIS LEGACY Chief Washakie was an important American Indi- Indians for a few years before settling with a an leader whose life spanned nearly one hundred group of Shoshones in what is now southwestern years—from sometime around 1804 to 1900— . Washakie married during this time and he witnessed many intense developments and began hunting, trapping, and trading with in Shoshone history. Washakie’s story is particu- non-Indian trappers and traders. Through these larly informative because he lived through three activities he befriended a number of non-Indian important phases of American Indian–United trappers and traders, including . In States relations. When he was born, Native addition to his activities in the fur trade, Washakie American nations made agreements with the successfully participated in a number of battles United States as equal parties. Starting around defending the Shoshones against their enemies 1828, however, the balance of power between in the Blackfeet and Crow tribes. By the early Indians and the federal government shifted, and 1840s, Washakie became the leader of a number the United States enacted policies to remove and of bands of Shoshones who lived in the area. relocate Indians, usually in order to free up Indi- Washakie’s emergence as the leader of the an lands for non-Indian settlers. Finally, starting Shoshone coincided with a dramatic increase in in 1887, the government developed policies of the white presence on Shoshone lands. In 1843 assimilation and allotment, seeking to destroy the sovereign status of tribal communities. Washak- what came to be known as the Oregon Trail, and ie’s life stretched through these eras; thus, his thousandsthe first large of other group whites of settlers followed, headed making out across their way to Oregon and . In 1847, members Shoshone people exercised during these periods of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ofexperiences change. reflect the degrees of agency the known as the , entered Shoshone Washakie was born around 1801 in the Bitterroot territory and began to settle in Utah near the Valley of what is now Montana. His father was a Great Salt Lake. Washakie was friendly to these member of the Salish tribe and his mother was a various groups of early settlers, as were most member of the Shoshone tribe. When Washakie other Shoshone leaders in the area. In 1851, the federal government, in an attempt to secure the Indians attacked the Salish village where he and safety of the overland trails, signed the Treaty hiswas family about lived. five Washakie’s years old, afather group was of killed, Blackfeet and of Fort Laramie with several Great Plains tribes. Washakie’s mother decided to take her children and try to return to her tribe. The family settled the treaty, Washakie and a contingent of Shoshones with the Lemhi Shoshones on the Salmon River in attendedThough the the Shoshones negotiations. were Washakie’snot officially military part of what is now . - cials, building his reputation as a great leader of Washakie lived with the Lemhi until, as a young thestrength Shoshones. and diplomacy impressed white offi man, he left to live with a group of Bannock

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As white settlers pushed further into Shoshone although he had been shot many times. In lands and began to use, or interfere with, more addition to murdering so many of their people, and more of the vital resources of the area, the army also destroyed all of the Northwestern tensions between settlers and some of the Shoshones’ food and shelter, leaving survivors Shoshones rose. This was especially true of the of the massacre destitute. Many of the survivors area along the Snake River, in what is now south- escaped to Washakie’s camp in Wind River. ern Idaho and eastern Oregon, and in northern In the aftermath of the , Utah. Beginning in the 1850s, in response to the the Shoshones felt the full impact of the federal destruction of water holes, game, and vital government’s removal and relocation policies. plant resources, Shoshone groups not directly In 1863 Washakie, along with other Shoshone leaders, signed a treaty at Fort Bridger that raids against emigrant groups. affiliated with Chief Washakie began to conduct was designed to help keep peace between the In 1858 as a result of the “Utah War,” control Shoshones and the white emigrants and settlers. It over Indian affairs passed from Mormon leaders allowed for white roads, ferries, and settlements, to U.S. government and military leaders. While tensions existed between the Mormons and the Shoshone land. In the years following this treaty, Shoshones prior to 1858, this change in leader- thewhile Shoshones only loosely under definingWashakie what faced constituted increasing ship further destabilized the region. In January 1863, several small incidents of violence and from increased settlement. In 1867 Washakie theft between the Shoshones and settlers andconflict a local with Indian neighboring agent requested groups that and the pressure Wind occurred near the town of Franklin, Washington River Valley be set aside as a reservation, and in Territory (now Idaho). On January 29, 1863 1868 a second treaty was signed at Fort Bridger Colonel and about two- granting those lands to the eastern Shoshones hundred army volunteers from Camp Douglas in under Washakie. However, between 1896 and Salt Lake City attacked a group of 450 Shoshone 1904 this reservation was slowly whittled down men, women, and children in a winter camp along the Bear River, about twelve miles from Franklin. - In the early hours of the morning, Connor and to one-fifth of its original size. nes, Chief Washakie offered friendship to the his men surrounded the Shoshones and began AmericanThroughout settlers. these difficultFor instance, times hefor was the Shoshoa friend a four-hour assault on the virtually defenseless of , the leader of Mormon Church, group. Some 350 Shoshones were slaughtered by and he and about three hundred other Shosho- the troops, including many women and children. nes converted to the LDS faith in 1880. Although This was one of the most violent events in Utah’s Washakie would later convert to Episcopalian- history and the largest Indian massacre in U.S. ism, many Shoshones, including many from the history. Chief Sagwitch, who at the time had been Northwestern band, remained members of the trying to negotiate peace with the United States, Mormon Church. survived. So did his young son Beshup Timimboo,

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In 1876, after being displaced from farms in General Allotment or Dawes Act requiring that Corinne, Utah, many members of the North- land be removed from tribal control, portioned to western Band of the Shoshone applied for land individuals, and the remainder opened to white under the Homestead Act, and they and several settlement. As a result of this act over 18,000 Mormon families created what was eventually acres were stripped from Washakie’s Wind River known as the Malad Indian Farm. Though this Reservation by 1935. farm was later abandoned, it was an important In spite of these losses, as the name of the step in the formation of the Washakie settlement Washakie settlement attests, Washakie and also demonstrates the ingenuity of the North- commanded respect among both Indians and western band in using the Homestead Act, a tool non-Indians alike. Several locations and build- of white expansion, to gain advantages for their ings throughout the West have been named for own people. The Washakie settlement, named him, including the dining hall at the University of for the great Shoshone leader, was founded on Wyoming in Laramie and a county in Wyoming. lands purchased by the Mormon Church in 1881. In World War II, the United States launched a The Northwestern Shoshones later expanded the both a battleship and a tugboat named after the statesman. A bronze statue of Washakie, donated Homestead Act. Washakie settlement by filing for land under the by the state of Wyoming, is part of the National While some Shoshones were able to use the tools Statuary Hall collection in Washington, D.C. of western expansion, to maintain a small amount of control over their original lands, ideas of assimilation continued to dominate federal Indian policy. On February 8, 1887, thirteen years before Washakie’s death in 1900, Congress passed the

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WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE the life of chief washakie part one: washakie’s early life

Historians don’t know when Washakie was born, but many believe it Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute was between 1800 and 1804. Through his participation in many adven- tures and battles, Washakie became a leader for the Shoshone nation. He negotiated many agreements between the Shoshones and the United States. Washakie lived for nearly one hundred years and had an exciting life. As a young man he traveled through the western part of North America and traded with trappers and mountain men. He met many different people and learned English, French, and many Native American lan- guages. Being able to get along with non-Indians helped him be a good leader for the Shoshone people. He was known for being good at com- municating with others and being brave during battle for the Shoshone nation. When Washakie was a young man, the American Indian nations and the U.S. military were equally strong. But non-Indians continued to move beyond the Mississippi River, eventually traveling as far west as Shosho- ne territory. To protect Shoshone lands, many men, Washakie included, Chief Washakie went into battle against the United States and other Native American - ponent. groups. Washakie fought fearlessly and became known as a fierce op D. B. Huntington, an interpreter between the Shoshones and the United States, wrote about Washakie: The First Buffalo [Washakie] ever killed he skinned the pate, Monument Valley - Navajo took the hair off, puckered it up, and tied it around a stick with a hole in it, and when it became perfectly dry it would rattle, and when the Sioux came to war with them, he would ride in among them and scare their horses; so they called him Wash-a- Kii, “The Rattler.” His name reminded people how tough he was in battle. But he wasn’t

from other backgrounds. He became friends with many U.S. settlers. just a fighter; Washakie was also interested in getting to know people

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WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE the life of chief washakie part two: washakie becomes a leader

Washakie became a leader of the Shoshone around 1851. By this time, the Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute United States had a stronger military than many American Indians na- tions. Non-Indians were expanding across the continent, and they want- ed Indian lands. Many tribal nations, including the Shoshones, agreed to give up some of their land to the United States in order to keep some land and avoid war. Washakie was a charismatic leader, and he used his leadership abilities to help negotiate treaties that ensured peace for the Shoshone people. In the 1850s and 1860s, whites traveled through Shoshone territory on their way to the West Coast. The new travelers destroyed grasslands and killed game the Shoshones needed to survive. Sometimes they also killed Shoshone Indians. With their way of life threatened, some Shoshones fought back by stealing food and cattle from the settlers’ wagons. The U.S. government was angry that some Shoshones were causing trouble, so in January 1863, United States troops from Salt Lake City at- tacked a group of Shoshones camped along the Bear River near what is now Franklin, Idaho. The troops killed over 350 defenseless Shoshone Chief Washakie people, including many women and children. This was the worst Indian massacre in U.S. history, and it showed the Shoshone people how far the government would go to protect white settlers. Later that year, Washakie helped negotiate a treaty with the United States to ensure the safety of his people. The treaty, known as the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1863, promised safe travel to American settlers and Monument Valley - Navajo reduced the amount of Shoshone land. Knowing how many had died at Bear River, Washakie may have signed the treaty because he was afraid for his people. The Fort Bridger Treaty of 1863 encouraged peace with these words: Friendly and amicable relations are hereby re-established be- tween the bands of the Shoshonee nation, parties hereto, and the

shall be henceforth maintained between the Shoshone nation andUnited the States; United and States. it is declared that a firm and perpetual peace A second treaty in 1868 took away even more Shoshone land, and many Shoshones had to move to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Washakie could not keep the government from taking Shoshone land, but - lished peace with the United States government. he is an important figure in Shoshone history because he helped estab

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WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE the life of chief washakie part three: the legacy of washakie

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Chief Washakie

There are many different groups of Shoshone Indians. Washakie led many of these groups, with the help of several sub-chiefs. One band that Washakie led was called the Northwestern Shoshone, who lived in what is now southeastern Idaho and northwestern Utah. Many Northwestern Shoshone had been killed in the Bear River Massacre; those who lived did not want to move to the Wind River Reservation or the nearby Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho. Instead, they worked hard to remain in their traditional homeland. In the 1880s, many Northwestern Shoshone moved to land near Brigham City. With help from members of the Church of Jesus Monument Valley - Navajo Christ of Latter-day Saints, they established a farm. They called the new settlement Washakie, in honor of their beloved leader. In 1882, two years after the settlement, the Washakie Day School opened to teach the Shoshone youth. After a long life of service and high achievements, Washakie passed away on February 20, - dian country and many western states. He is the only American Indian leader to receive a 1900.military His funeral influence from the and United importance States government. to the Shoshones and to the United States is still felt in In In 2004 the state of Wyoming legislature dedicated a statue to the memory of Washakie with an inscription attributed to him: I fought to keep our land, our water and our hunting grounds—today, education is the weapon my people need to protect them. Washakie led an adventurous life, one of great service to Shoshone people. His commitment to peace is re- spected and admired by both American Indian and non-Indian people alike, and his legacy will always be remembered by the Northwestern Shoshone of Utah.

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